Biodynamic Quietude Practicean introduction to terms and process

Todd Jackson, LMT | 3 February 2018 | Portland, Oregon

Contents

1 what is quietude?

2 biodynamic quietude terminology

6 observational and perceptive fields

7 tactile impressions of palpated quietude

8 related quietude locations during treatment 9 prioritizing the connection to quietude

12 perception and process

1

What is quietude?

We use the word quietude to describe a spectrum of wholeness or non-separation. At one end of the spectrum there is a perception of “noise” and at the other end “silence” happens. As practitioners, there is a point along the spectrum of quietude where no amount of technique, knowledge, prayer or intending will be able to leverage further health. At this point, only the intelligence of wholeness may emerge to change circumstances. The practitioner, if far enough along the spectrum of quietude themselves, will be able to observe and palpate this happening. The spawning of spontaneous health and integration, the return to wholeness which transpires, is incomparable to anything a practitioner can do on their own. To be able to recognize and work with this avenue to wholeness will allow us to embody new relationships to what we consider healthy being.

To recognize the palpable spectrum of quietude, we can observe moments in life when the environment becomes more quiet. Like when you’re sitting at a cafe, sipping espresso, and there is a simultaneous pause in the music playing, people talking and cessation of auto noise outside. Or when walking along a trail, navigating your way across a stream’s bridge, rounding the edge of a hill which then blocks the stream’s sound. Both of these examples feature an auditory quietude. There is another type of quietude that can be felt with the skin, the brain, the glands and the central channel of the practitioner. As if the “sound” waves are fewer, with less momentum, and consequently strike the practitioner’s being less frequently and forcefully.

The practitioner can recognize quietude when the subtle sounds of the client’s fluids, glands, central nervous system, pain and restrictions likewise become more quiescent. We can palpate a more restful baseline state, a more ease-ful and expansive softening of the inner-body. The local tissues being worked become more still and quiet under our hands. Subtle undulatory motilities pause, just like the songs of birds abate when nature shifts.

As the practitioner attunes to the spectrum of quietude they become more present. At first, improved mental clarity and amplified sensation dawn. The distinction between elements and the clarity of the practitioner as an individual becomes highlighted. As the practitioner follows the development of quietude towards silence, their thoughts and motives begin to fall aside while the observable non-differentiation between elements grows. We observe that there truly is no separation between us and others and nature. It may seem as if we are separate from time to time, but a palpatory and observational happening can provide a compelling and overwhelming alternate perspective.

2

Biodynamic Quietude Terminology

Biodynamic Quietude Practice Sensitively observing, following and uniting with the primary self-healing potency.

Felt Sense The felt sense refers to an awareness observing phenomena using common sensory channels, interoceptive faculties and non-localized perception. It functions more clearly and cleanly to those newer to this palpatory realm when there is reduced thinking, motive, and sense of self. The felt sense allows us to palpate information within our own being and far beyond.

The felt sense refers to the palpable sensory information available not only through the hands, but via the central channel, glands and all the cells of the practitioner. The tactile spectrums of pressure, magnetic attraction-repulsion, and movement as palpated via the central channel, glands, etc., will serve us well in understanding the depth of quietude while playing in the biodynamic realm. QuietudeQuietude refers to a living spectrum of palpable experience. Similar to the spectrum of light, there are different colors or gradations of quietude which each appear distinctly different to our felt sense. When something appears less quiet it can be described as less still, more noisy, more separate from other comparable elements. When something appears more quiet, it appears more still, quiet, integrated in relationship to comparable elements. The most quiet end of the spectrum cannot be experienced as the individual who might perceive it becomes dissolved by this depth of quietude. This depth of quietude cannot be described because words cannot convey it.

The spectrum of quietude can be used to evaluate the depth of client processing, practitioner awareness, and stage of treatment process. Lesser quietude points towards the source of health while greater quietude conveys the source of health.

Quietude feels like something which draws the felt sense deeper as the practitioner obseves with fewer thoughts and motives. It can often be felt more readily and sensitively via the glands and central channel, than by the hands or wrists.

The Spectrum of Quietude

The spectrum of quietude ranges from motility, through neutral, and into stillness, towards silence. The demarcations along the spectrum of quietude from less quietude (motility) to more quietude (silence) frame the practitioner’s perception of the depth at which the client is processing as well as the depth of the practitioner’s state and the qualities of the larger environment in which the treatment transpires.

motility neutral stillness silenceQ- Q+